GRAMMA R. 
ibe chief, numeral fllflini 5 lions which men, at hi H, liad 
any occalion to take notice of. 
Gender is an affection of fubllantive nour.s, wliich will 
lead us into more difcullion than niimbtr. Gender, be¬ 
ing- founded on the diflinction of the two fexes, it is 
plain, that in a proper fenfe, it can only find place in 
the names of living creatures-, which admit the didinc- 
tion of male and female, and therefore can be ranged 
under the mafeuiine or feminine genders. All other 
fubftantive nouns ought to belong to what grammarians 
call the nevier gender, wliich is meant to imply tlie ne¬ 
gation of either fex. But, wi.h refpedt to this diftii- 
bution, fomewhat lingular liath obtained in the (li uclure 
of language. For, in correfpondence to that diftinCtion 
of male and female fex, which runs through all the 
clafTes of animals, men have, in moll languages, ranked 
a great number of inanimate objetds alfo, under the like 
diltindlions of mafeuiine and feminine. Thus we find 
it, both in the Greek 'and Latin tongues. Gladius, a 
fvvord, tor inlfance, is mafeuiine ; fagitta, an arrow, is 
feminine ; and this allignation of lex to inanimate ob- 
jedts, this didinddioii of them into mafeuiine and femi¬ 
nine, appears often to be entirely capricious; derived 
from no other principle than the cafual (truclure of tlie 
language, which retei s to a certain gender, words of a 
certain termination. In the Greek and Latin, however, 
all inanimate objedts are not diflributed into mafeuiine 
and feminine 5 but many of them are alfo clallcd, where 
all of them ought to have been, under the neuter gen¬ 
der; as, templum, a ciiurch ; fedile, a feat. But the ge¬ 
nius of the French and Italian tongues difi'ers, in tliis 
refpedl, from the Greek and Latin. In the French and 
Italian, fiom whatever caufe it has happened, fo it is, 
that the neuter gender is wholly unknown, and tliat all 
their rvames of inanimate objects are put upon the fame 
footing with living creatures ; and diltributed, without 
exception, into mafeuiine and feminine. Tiie French 
have two articles, the mafeuiine /e, and the feminine la-, 
and one or other of thefe is prefixed to all fubftantive 
nouns in the language, to denote their gender. I'he 
Italians make the fame univerfal ufe of tlieir articles il 
and h, tor tlie mafeuiine ; and la for the feminine. 
In the Englilh language, it is remarkable that there 
obtains a peculiarity quite oppofite. In tlie French and 
Italian, there is no neuter gender. In the Liiglilh, 
when we ufe common difeourfe, all fubftantiv. nouns, 
that are not names of living creatures, are neuter, wdtli- 
out exception. He, Jhe, and it, are the maiks of tlie 
three genders ; and we always ule it, in fpeakiiig of any 
objebt where there is no lex, or wliere the lex is not 
known. Tlie Engliih is, perhaps, the only language in 
tile known world (except the Chinele, which is faid to 
agree with it in this particiiku) where the diftiiiblion of 
gender is properly and philolopiiically applied in the 
ufe of words, and confined, as it oyght to be, to mark 
the real difriiictioiis of male and female, hence ariles 
a very great and fignal advantage of the Englilh tongue, 
which it is of conleqiience to remark. Though in com¬ 
mon difeourfe, as already obferved, we employ only the 
proper and literal diftindtioii of fexes; yet the genius 
of the language permits us, whenever it,will add beauty 
to our dilcoiirfe, to make the names of inanimate ob¬ 
jects rnafculiiie or feminine in a metapliorical lenfe ; 
and when we do fo, we are underltood to quit the lite¬ 
ral flyle, and to ufe one of the figures of difeourfe. 
For inftjiice; if Tam fpeaking of virtue, in the coiirfe 
of ordinary converfation, or of ftridt reafoning, I refer 
the word to no lex or gender ; I fay, “ Virtue is its own 
reward or, “ it is tlie law of our nature.” But if I 
chufe to rife into a higher tone ; if I leek to embellilh 
and animate my difcourle, I give a fex to virtue ; I lay, 
She defeends from he iveii;—Ihe alone confers true 
honour upon man ; her gifts are the only durable re¬ 
wards.” By this means, we have it in our power to 
vary our ftyle at pleafiire. By making a very llight al¬ 
teration, we can perlonify any objett that we chufe to 
VOL. Vill, No. 54J. 
?r5 
introduce with dignity ; and by this change of manner, 
we give vvarning, tlial we are palling from the ftrict 
anii logical to the ornamented and rhetorical I'yie. 
This is an advantage which not only every poet, but 
every good writer mid fpeaker in profe, is, on many 
occafioqs, glad to lay hold of, and improve : and it is 
an advantage peculiar to our tongue ; no other language 
polfeires it. For, in other languages, every word has 
one fixed gender, mafeuiine, feminine, or neuter, wliich 
can upon no occalion be changed ; ceiirr,, for inftaiice, 
in Greek; virtjis, in Latin ; and la vertu, in Frencli; 
are uniformly feminine. She muft always be the ]iro- 
noun aiifwering to the word, whether you be writing in 
poetry or prole, whether you be iiling the ftyle of rca- 
loning or that of declamation : wliereas, in Englilh, we 
can either exprefs ourfelves with tlie philofoj.'liical ac¬ 
curacy of giving no gender to things inanimate ; or by 
giving them gender, and transforming them into per- 
lons, we adapt them to the ftyle of poetry, and, wdien 
it is proper, we enliven profe. 
It de'erves to be further remarked on this fubjedl, 
that, wlien ve employ that liberty which our language 
allows, of afcfibiiig fex to any inanimate objedt, we 
liave not, lio'.vever, the liberty of making it of what 
gender we pleafe, mafeuiine or feminine; but are, in 
general, Aibjetfted to fonie rule of gender whicli the 
currency of language has fixed to that fubjetf. Tlie 
foundation of that rule is imagined, by Mr. Ha.rris, in 
his Philofophical Enquiry into tlie Principles of Gram¬ 
mar, to be laid in a certain diftant rel'emblancc, or ana¬ 
logy, to the natural diftin( 5 tion of tlie two fexes. Thus, 
according to him, we commonly give tlie mafeuiine 
gender to thofe liibftantive nouns ufed figuratively, 
which are confpicuous for the attributes of imparting, 
or couimunicatiiig ; which are by nature ftrong and ef¬ 
ficacious, either to good or evil ; or which have a claim 
to I'ome eminence, whether laudable or not. Tiiofe 
again, lie imagines to be generally made feminine, which 
are coiifpituuus for the attributes of containing, and of 
bringing fortli ; which have more of the palfive in their 
nature, than the adlive ; which are peculiarly beauti¬ 
ful or amiable; or which liave refpedl to Inch excell'es 
as are rather feminine than mafeuiine. Upon thefe prin¬ 
ciples he takes notice, that the fun is always put in the 
mafeuiine gender with us ; the moon in the feminine, as 
being the receptacle of the fun's light. Tlie earth is, 
iiaiverlally, feminine. A fliip, a country, a city, are 
likewil'e made feminine, as receivers, or containers, 
God, in all languages, is mafeuiine. Time, we make 
mafeuiine, on account cf its mighty efficacy ; virtue, 
feminine, from its beauty, and its being the objeifl of 
love. Fortune is always feminine. Mr. Harris ima¬ 
gines, that the reafons which determine the gender of 
Inch words as thefe, hold in moll other languages, as 
well as tile Englifli. This, however, appears doubtful. 
A variety of circumltances, which feem cafual to us, 
becaufe we cannot reduce them to principles, mull, un- 
queftionably, have influenced the original formation ©f 
languages ; and in no article whatever does language 
appear to have been more capricious, and to have pro¬ 
ceeded lefs according to fixed rule, than in the impofi.- 
tion of gender upon things inanimate ; efpecially among 
fuch nations as have applied the diftimStion of mafeuiine 
and feminine to all lubllantive nouns. Thus in the 
French and German languages we have ftrange inftaiices 
of caprice, if not of ablurdity, in this part of grammar. 
The words patrole and fentinel are in French of the fe¬ 
minine gender, la patrouilk, la fentinclk-, and the king is 
always fpoken of in the feminine, yi majejle. In Ger. 
man, many of tiie words relating to the female fex are 
of the neuter gender; as, jPrauen-volk, weibtr-volh, J'rauen- 
ziminer, women in general; yiaa/fftt, a young woman; 
weib, a woman or wife ; weibchen, weMein, a little woman 
or wife, the female of animals in general, &c. 
We next proceed to that peculiarity of fubftantive 
nouns, which, in the ftyle of grammar, is called their 
51 decienlien 
